Friday, February 18, 2011

Absolut perfekt

While some Distractions now have adopted homelands - Steve Perrin, New Zealand; Nick Garside, USA... Mike Finney, Yorkshire - it is Sweden that's home to some of the most ardent Distractions fans. From December last year, here is a piece from the Popgeni blog, thanks to Björn for the article and to Hans for the Occultation link:

With apologies to the author, here is rough translation with the help of google:

Absolutely perfect

Bands who only released one album can be immortal, but are clearly annoying.

Especially if its debut is of a ridiculously high standard. Maybe it's about chickening out and not daring to work together on a sequel that will probably not reach the same level.

The English pop and new wave band, The Distractions from Manchester, split just a year after their debut album "Nobody's Perfect" (1980), which was probably mostly to do with the lack of chart success despite critics hailing their singles and the full length record.

"Nobody's Perfect" is an overlooked diamond in the crowd, but a much-loved album amongst those who invested in its time.

The singer, Mike Finney and guitarist Steve Perrin, 30 years after the breakup were back in a recording studio in June this year to record the vinyl EP "Come Home" which we regard as an enlightened little pop miracle.

"Come Home" was released in November and what's more, in the New Year, there will be a compilation featuring previously unreleased material from the band.

"Nobody's Perfect" is not on Spotify, so there is no chance to listen.

But the video for "Lost", one of the three tracks on "Come Home", indicates strongly that the old men still have the feeling.